While the party is on their way to Gralea to reclaim the Crystal, Noctis is tricked by Ardyn Izunia into pushing Prompto off the train. As they are under imperial attack, the party is unable to stop the train and are forced to leave their friend behind to be captured by the empire.

Several days later, Prompto traverses the snowfields of the Niflheim outlands alone. He succumbs to the cold and is found by magitek troopers and brought to a local magitek production facility. He meets Ardyn who gives Prompto back his handgun and urges him to meet with his father, and tells him he was born here. Prompto is not ready to believe it, and sets out to escape the facility. He finds various firearms around the complex and uses them to destroy the MTs swarming around the place. By reading the research notes and listening to audio logs from Verstael Besithia, the leading imperial magitek researcher, he learns how the empire produces MTs from daemonized human clones. As he finds dormant clones in their tubes, he finds they all look like him, and have the same bar code tattooed on their wrists Prompto himself has.